Canadian TV host from A&E Network says Nicholas Alahverdian conned her out of $40K

Nothing enraged Nicholas Alahverdian more, it seems, than being exposed for what he was.

A convicted sex offender who sued the Ohio college student he groped in 2008 for damaging his reputation. (He lost the case.)

The charlatan who faked his death, then threatened The Journal with lawsuits in 2021 if it didn’t retract a story about law-enforcement agencies still searching for him. (The threats came from “Louise,” supposedly his widow, who erred several times in muddled email diatribes, referring to her “husband” in the present tense.)

The vindictive roommate accused of cashing checks belonging to a Providence friend who took him in in 2017 — only to have him defiantly refuse to move out. “I fear for my safety,” the friend wrote in a request for a restraining order.

Most recently in the case: Scottish prosecutor says Nick Alahverdian was identified in the hospital by his tattoos

Now, add Canadian TV personality Nafsika Antypas, who hosts a show on the A&E network, to the list of those familiar with Alahverdian’s signature methods of harassment and threats after she discovered, she says, that he swindled her out of $40,000.

When she confronted him for not producing a promotional campaign for her vegan lifestyle show, “It became very hostile," she said. "He started calling my parents and said he was going to take my father’s company to court."

The calls were incessant, coming from four different numbers as if he was using some form of "auto-call device," she said.

“He used my driver’s license photo and made it look like a mug shot,” posting it online with the words “Fraud Alert” underneath. He created other online accounts “to spread rumors about me. He tried to defame me.”

She became frightened: “I thought, who knows if he could come to my house. I didn’t want this guy around.”

"Warrant was granted": Nicholas Alahverdian re-arrested in Scotland after bail-review hearing

Where's Nicholas Alahverdian now?

Alahverdian, 34, and from Rhode Island, is now sitting in a Scottish prison, held for extradition on a rape charge from Utah and a financial fraud complaint out of Ohio.

Authorities say he faked his death in February 2020 to avoid prosecution in those cases and perhaps others.

Alahverdian avoided detection for almost two years, apparently living in Ireland and the United Kingdom, until he came down with COVID-19. Authorities discovered him in a Glasgow hospital in December, where he had been placed on a ventilator.

How Nafsika Antypas says she lost money to him

On Feb. 26, 2020 — three days before the “Office of Nicholas Alahverdian” and "Louise" announced in a news release to Rhode Island media that Alahverdian had died — Antypas hired a man named Nicholas Knight-Brown to help promote the fourth season of her television show “Plant-Based by Nafsika.”

She said she learned from Scottish media that Knight-Brown was actually Alahverdian, the man a Scottish prosecutor said last week employed perhaps as many as 16 aliases while on the run.

Antypas found him on Upwork, a online marketplace for freelancers looking for work in web development, promotions and marketing.

In an interview with The Journal, Antypas, of Montreal, said, “He told me he had an international law degree” and mentioned Harvard, where Alahverdian — once a familiar Rhode Island advocate for child-welfare reform — did take some extension-program classes.

Antypas was initially impressed. She agreed to pay him $10,000 a month for marketing and public relations services. But although Alahverdian talked a good game, there were always excuses for why no work was being done, said Antypas.

“One month it was because he was in the hospital. The second month was his dog was in the hospital, the third month he was going on a second honeymoon with his wife.”

Abuse allegations in Rhode Island: Pawtucket police reports detail allegations by women against Nick Alahverdian

Antypas had once before been scammed, a point she shared with Alahverdian and which, in hindsight, she says he used against her.

When she first confronted him for not producing the promotional campaign he said he would, “He said, ‘Oh, you're just paranoid because you’ve been scammed before.’ I felt guilty. I thought, OK, maybe I am paranoid.”

Alahverdian called her all the time, speaking in a labored accent that ranged from English to Irish.

“He used this stuttering accent. It was British but he said he was Irish. I think he was trying to make it Irish.”

“He was calling me all the time. I was like, ‘OK, just do your work, whatever.” He tried to be flirtatious and I was not interested in the slightest, but I was just trying to be nice. He’d say ‘Oh, my wife will get jealous that we are talking so much.’ I was always uncomfortable with him the whole time.”

More on the Utah case: Utah court documents detail rape charge against Nicholas Alahverdian

Alahverdian said he was working with his wife, Miranda. And Antypas spoke to her and emailed her occasionally. She seemed nice.

But after four months with no work product from Alahverdian, Antypas said she cut the couple out of her business, denying them further access to the company’s emails, and sent out notices to associates that he no longer worked for her.

Then, “It got very, very ugly,” she said.

Antypas kept copies of the written threats:

“I am shocked, appalled, and abhorred that you would insinuate that I’ve done nothing for you,” Alahverdian wrote. “We need to speak or I will have no choice but to take legal action against you, your company, and your father and his company.”

He gave her an ultimatum: “If I don’t hear from you by 10:00 eastern, I will be posting a lengthy account of my experience on ripoffreport.com — where they NEVER remove posts and reviews about companies ... You have one hour and 17 minutes before settlement negotiations are off.”

He sent her a letter supposedly from a Montreal lawyer demanding to be paid $110,556.

Antypas had her lawyer send a letter back in reply demanding he pay her back the $40,000 he had received. She never heard back.

Some of the threats supposedly came from Miranda.

“But they didn’t sound like her,” said Antypas. “She seemed nice. I think he was pretending to be her.”

One of them read: “I know Nicholas better than anyone and can tell you that he will not let this go.”

Email Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Nafsika Antypas of A&E network says she lost $40K to Nick Alahverdian